England winning the Cricket World Cup would be a bigger achievement than 2019, says Eoin Morgan

Eoin Morgan led England to 50-over World Cup glory in 2019 but says it would be a greater achievement if Jos Buttler steered the side to a successful title defense in India…

The challenges for me going into 2019 were completely different from what Jos experienced during his participation in this tournament.

Between 2015 and 2019, our sole focus was trying to win the ODI World Cup at home. There was a clear emphasis on having your best players available in the year leading up to the match and trying to get absolute role clarity in every possible position. Jos didn’t have that.

There has been a complete change in attitude in English cricket, where test cricket is now the absolute priority. Only rarely in T20s and ODIs has Jos had his best side at his disposal.

This was an Ashes year, a huge one for Ben Stokes and his red ball team.

Quietly behind the scenes, Buttler and head coach Matthew Mott have been planning for this World Cup, but if you asked them they would probably say it has been an incredible challenge.

They would have wanted everyone to be in top condition before heading to India, but Mark Wood has not played a competitive game since the last Ashes Test in July.

The squad has changed and changed quite a bit, while there were question marks surrounding the squad with the late omission of Jason Roy and the inclusion of Harry Brook.

All things considered, it would undoubtedly be a greater achievement for England to win this World Cup than when we won in 2019.

The nature of the schedule meant they couldn’t get the kind of preparation they would like and being away from home, especially in India where India is so strong, is tough. Winning here would carry much more weight than winning at home.

However, I am still very hopeful that England can defend the title.

You’re talking about one of the best teams in the world in the best era of white-ball cricket they’ve ever enjoyed and I think the squad is stronger than it was in 2019. There’s a lot more strength in depth.

Four years ago we couldn’t have replaced Wood and his 90mph bowling, but now we have Gus Atkinson. You can’t replace Wood’s accuracy and experience, but you can replace his pace. Players are now four years later with much more experience and that counts double at the World Cup.

The biggest compliment I can give the captain is that he does things his own way. He doesn’t try to replicate what I would do. Jos’s decision-making ability is as good as anyone’s under pressure. He went to his first tournament as captain, last year at the T20 World Cup, and won the trophy, which is not easy.

‘You never feel sidelined when Stokes plays’

I think in England’s best XI the likely attack would be Woakes, Wood, Adil Rashid, Sam Curran or Reece Topley and then Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone as your all-rounders.

Depending on the circumstances, you can throw in an extra seamer for one of those spinning all-rounders: Atkinson if you want raw pace in the middle overs or Dave Willey if you want him with the new ball.

I think England made the most of their warm-up match against Bangladesh on Monday.

In the past, they were known to treat warm-up games as pure competition games and only play with 11 players. Play to win and make every situation of the game highly relevant to the World Cup. But here they were playing everyone but Ben Stokes to try and get them some game time.

Getting Stokes back is huge for England.

No team in the world likes to play against a side with Stokes in it and when you have him in your side you never feel out of side.

He has had the unique ability to make any role his own for a number of years now and it reflects the skill and belief level of the man. When he’s in your locker room, everyone around him grows because of his X-factor.

He obviously played a crucial innings at Lord’s in 2019 when we beat New Zealand. That’s a day I go back to a lot, because it’s a day people ask me about a lot!

When I think about it, it gives me immense joy and pride. It was the culmination of four years of work with a group of cricketers who have become good friends.

If there was a time in my career that I could go back to, I would go back to the beginning of the journey in 2015.

The highs and lows we experienced led to one of the best ODIs ever played. It was a very special time in my life.

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